1Q8 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[APHlIi, 
A Novel Enterprise. 
Upon the line of the Cape May Railroad one of the 
largest enterprises of this most active period is thus re¬ 
ferred in a new work—“ How to Get a Farm and Where 
to Find One,” by the author of “ Ten Acres Enough.” 
As it has uniformly been in the West, on the opening 
cf a new railroad, so it was in New Jersey on the open¬ 
ing of that from Camden to Atlantic City. Enterprising 
men were drawn to the region thus inviting specuiation, 
investment and improvement. They brought capital, 
skill and energy, and quickly made an impression. Among 
the earliest and most thorougii going of these was Mr. 
Charles K. Landis, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This 
gentleman was impressed with the great value and avail¬ 
ability of organized colonization. He secured five thous¬ 
and acres on the railroad at Hammonton, and in 1838 his 
colony was fairly under way. His ideas w itli lespect to 
colonization appear to have outstripped all others for 
comprehensiveness, whilst his plans weie definite, prac¬ 
tical and liberal. He sold to none but actual settlers, 
telling the mere speculators to go elsewhere, and gave 
special encouragement to fruit growing. He introduced 
the New England School system, and kept out the sale 
of liquor. 
He laid out streets and roads, and in other ways ex¬ 
pended money liberally in promoting the welfare of the 
settlers. These were of the best class, principally from 
New-England; Intelligent,^ tasteful and industrious. 
Home manufactures of various kinds were introduced, 
churches and scliool-houses were built, good crops were 
yielded to the farmer, and a general prosperity prevailed 
which astonished all who witnessed it. The settlement 
speedily numbered two thousand persons, who now pro¬ 
duce more food than they need, and ship large quantities 
to New-York and Philadelphia. 
The experience acquired in settling Hammonton en¬ 
larged tlie views of Mr. Landis, showed him his omis¬ 
sions and mistakes, and gave him ideas which he consid¬ 
ered so valuable that he determined to carry them out 
on a wider field. Accordingly, in 1861 he secured 25.000 
acres in one body in Cumberland county, all in the same 
wild and uncultivated condition. This tract of waste 
land lay on the then newly opened railroad from Camden 
to Cape May, passing through Milville and Glassboro’. 
It covered an area of forty-five square miles, with the 
lailroad passing tlirough it, and was within thirty-five 
miles of Philadelphia. This settlement he named 
VINELAND. 
In this great undertaking his plan was to establish a 
perfect, regular and comprehensive system of public im¬ 
provement, for the benefit of the community to be tliere 
located ; to found a town in connection with and as an 
adjunct to an agricultural settlement; to develop therein 
a system of home manufactures and industry ; to promote 
religion, morals and a higli standard of education, and to 
provide homes for intelligent and worthy families who 
might be seeking them. 
It was a gigantic project, such as no other individual 
in this country had ever undertaken to carry out. It re¬ 
quired experience, incessant personal attention, great 
admimstrative and engineering ability and the expendi¬ 
ture of a large capital. There have been owners of 
tracts as large, but none who undertook to transform them 
from a desolation into a populous community. The lay 
of this land was such as to admit of its being plotted out 
as the owner desired. There were no rocks to blast, no 
mountains to remove, no unwholesome swamps to drain 
or to fill up. He began the enterprise amid the gloom 
which overspread the public mind immediately after tlie 
outbreak of the slaveholders’ Rebellion. His friends 
predicted difficulties and discouragements, while all ad¬ 
vised him to wait before commencing such an undertak¬ 
ing. 
But his confidence was not to be shaken ; he knew 
that the very convulsion against which his friends were 
warning him, was one of those wliich, of all others, in¬ 
duce men to look for pecuniary safety by purchasing 
land. 
In August, 1861, Mr. Landis went upon his new pur¬ 
chase with a surveyor, for the purpose of locating the 
first street that was to cross the railroad, since called 
Landis Avenue. As there was no carriage road either to 
or through the woods, they traversed the narrow cow- 
paths afoot until they reached the spot where the sur¬ 
veyor was to plant his first stake. A profound stillness 
reigned around them ; nothing could be heard beyond the 
rustling of the leaves , there was not a house within 
several miles. While the surveyor w.as planting his 
stakes, an old dweller among the pines and scrub oaks 
of that region came up to tliem, looked at the instruments, 
and inquired of Mr. Landis wliat they were doing. He re¬ 
plied that tliey were locating an avenue a hundred feet 
wide for a new town, and lliat within two years he would 
see tlie spot tliey tlien stood on, surrounded vvith build¬ 
ings for miles, witli farms and orchards where now the 
forest alone coiibl he seen. 
The man turned away incredulous, and pitying the in¬ 
fatuation of tlie projector. No wonder, he had lived 
seventy years in mat particular locality as a wood-chop¬ 
per, had never been to Philadelpliia, did not know how a 
city looked, and considered the idea of building one in that 
wilderness as the dream of a lunatic. But the town was 
laid out, with many five and ten acre lots, and many 
farms. Miles of spacious streets and roads were open¬ 
ed, public squares and a park. Every purchaser was re¬ 
quired to plant the front of his property with shade trees, 
to build a house within a year, at a certain distance from 
the roadside, and affording room in front for shrubbery 
and flowers. Unity of plan was tlius secured, insuring 
the utmost neatness and the highest embellishment. It 
was to be, in fact, a vast assemblage of betiuliful cottage 
residences. 
Mr. Landis lias already, at his own expense, opened 
nearly eighty miles of streets and roads, building bridges 
wherever needed, cleared out acres of stumps and rub¬ 
bish, established the grade, and on many otlier improve¬ 
ments expended thousands of dollars in making his great 
enterprise acceptable to the numerous families who have 
located on ids property. 
I visited tills remarkable spot in the summer of 1864, to 
examine its condition and surroundings. I had known 
and passed over the spot years before, when it was a 
perfect solitude, with neither hut nor clearing. It would 
be impossible within these limits to specify the marvelous 
clianges that had been made. The forest had disappear¬ 
ed, and in its place was to be seen a settlement contain¬ 
ing some six hundred and fifty houses and four thousand 
inhabitants. There was a rapidly grow ing town, having 
churches, schools, stores, mills, and other conveniences. 
I conversed vvith numerous settlers as to whence they 
came, and how they fared in their new location. As a 
body they belong to tlie better class of citizens, are edu¬ 
cated, intelligent, moral and enterprising. The drones 
whicli infest other communities are never found in hives 
like this. Great numbers of them are from New-Eng¬ 
land, while the neighboring States and even the West 
are largely represented in this common centre. Many 
have built costly and elegant houses. Many are profes¬ 
sional fruit-growers and gardeners. Those who buy 
farms are practical farmers. Tliere arc wealthy families 
in Vineland who remain there because of the mildness 
of the climate and healthfulness ol the place. Taken 
altogether the settlement has an old and cultivated look 
already. 
The soil of this great tract varies from a sandy to clay 
loam, is retentive of manures and abundantly produc¬ 
tive. It produces from 100 to 250 bushels of potatoes per 
acre: 15 to 25 of wheat, though the premium crop for 
wheat in Cumberland county, in 1855, was 44 bushels per 
acre. Of shelled corn, 50 to 75 bushels is the ordinary 
crop, and two tons of grass. 
Fruit trees and vines bear abundantly. I saw new- 
peach orchards of thrifty growih, some trees sliowing 
fruit, and grape vines giving promise of abundant crops. 
The winters are so mild as to allow of out-of-door work 
nearly all through them. Mr. Landis told me that for 
seven years he had not known the ploughing to be inter¬ 
rupted by reason of frost, for five days in anyone winter. 
All kinds of fruit are cultivated, the five and ten acre 
lots being mostly devoted to the smaller descriptions. 
All such are planted so that the picking will come in suc¬ 
cession; thus, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, 
peaches, grapes, apples, etc. 
In driving many miles over Vineland, I entered into 
conversation with numerous settlers at work by the road¬ 
side. Most of these happened to be farmers from the 
West, New-England, and Western New-York. All were 
busy on their growing crops, sometimes in groups of two 
or three, in the cornfield. Not one of them but exj>ressed 
his preference for his new location over the bleak climate 
he had left. I saw but one desirous of selling and re¬ 
moving, and but one house having on it a handbill as 
being in market. Most of these farms were just carved 
out of the woods, sliowing piles of roots that had been 
grubbed up. They are, of course, rough looking, like all 
new clearings in a new country; but the hand of industry 
was rapidly taming their wildness, and bringing them in¬ 
to prime condition. The general testimony was, that 
one day’s labor on this soil would accomplish twice as 
much work as if expended on the heavy or strong soil 
from which they had migrated. 
Such was the condition of the farms bought within six 
months or a year. Those which had been taken up by 
the first settlers, those of two and a half years ago, pre¬ 
sented a very different appearance. The genial and 
tractable soil had enabled tlieir owners to work a great 
transformation, even in that brief period. From most of 
these the stumps had disappeared. Gre.at fields of grain 
were whitening to the harvest; many acres of peach and 
apple orchards were to be seen, the former promising to 
yield a crop the coming season. Gardens were full of 
fine vegetables. The front upon the ro.ad had been 
trimmed up and seeded to grass, while shrubbery and 
flowers were visible on many of the lawns. 
Of the thirty-acre farm of Mr. William 0. H. Guynnetb 
a brief notice may seri* as an illustration. This gentlemar 
is from Boston, and was among the earliest of the settlers 
He bought thirty acres, then utterly wild, now complete!} 
tamed. His dwelling house is so beautiful a structure as 
to command admiration anywhere. He has planted or¬ 
chards, now growing finely, and has acres of excellen 
wheat. His large corn field showed as fine a growth as 
farmer could desire, and so atso did his clover crop. 1 
w-alked over his ample garden, vineyard, and friii* 
grounds. Every kind of ordinary garden truck wa.« 
growing with a luxuriance altogether unexpected, ami 
fully equal to the average of that on lands that sell read 
ily at seven times the cost of his. 
Several hundred grape vines. Concord, Isabella, and 
Catawba, tw-o years planted, showed such an excess of 
fruit as to compel Mr. Guynneth to remove at least half. 
In no section of New-Jersey have I seen the grape vine 
grow so rampantly as in this ground. Cherry trees, 
pears, and other fruits flourished equally w-ell. It was 
the same with strawberries, gooseberries, and blackber 
ries. This ground had not received a particle of ma¬ 
nure. What it now is, affords a practical illustration of the 
real value of this section of New-Jersey. Three years 
ago a forest, now- the productive and really elegant home 
of an intelligent and accomplished family. 
On reaching the extreme boundary of the Vineland 
tract, I called on Mr. Robert G. Brandriff, who has 
here cultivated a farm of ninety acres during the last 
eleven years. This length of tillage I judged likely lo 
show what w-as the real stamina of this soil, whether it 
had any enduring heart in it, or whether it would speed¬ 
ily run down to barrenness. 
As Mr. Brandriff’s land w as of even lighter character 
than that of Vineland, its behavior under long cropping 
would afford a favorable test for the whole neighbor¬ 
hood. He gave me, without reserve, all the particulars 
of a truly remarkable history, with permission to use 
them. Eleven years ago this farm was covered with 
forest. The owner offered it to Mr. Brandriff for four 
hundred dollars for the ninety acres, and an ample time 
for payment, and being a storekeeper, a few miles off, 
added the important help of a credit on his books for sup 
plies for family use, and materials for building to the 
amount of six hundred dollars. At this time Mr. Brand¬ 
riff was not possessed of a dollar, but he w-ent to work, 
cleared up his land little by little, a few acres yearly, and 
thus conquered all difficulties, until now he has sixty 
acres in cultivation, from which his receipts in 1863 were 
two thousand dollars. 
His family consists of six persons, who have lived well 
during this time. His fences and buildings cost him some 
$1600. He keeps four cows, pigs, and one horse, by 
w hich all the work on the easily tilled soil of the farm is 
done. He hires but one man, except in busy limes. For 
tlie w ants of his family, and the prosecution of other im¬ 
provements, his annual outlay is $1,000. 
Mr. Brandriff showed me his account-book for the 
eleven years he had been at work, in which all his re¬ 
ceipts and expenditures were clearly entered, with the 
balance accurately struck at each year’s end. His farm 
is now worth $6,000. and he has abundant property- out¬ 
side of it to represent any debt he owes. His residence 
here has not been the humdrum existence of a mere 
sandpiper or woodchuck. He is a keen sportsman w ith 
line and gun. At the proper season, he plunges into the 
forest that covers much of this section of New-Jersey, 
camps out at night as naturally as an Indian, considers 
sleep of no consequence when compared with a coon 
hunt, and is a dead shot at any unlucky deer that crosses 
his path. The huge antlers hanging up in his shed afford 
evidence of his skill with the rifle. At other limes, he 
visits the neighboring waters of Delaware Bay, where 
.squadrons of w-ild ducks make generous contributions to 
his fondness for the gun. 
Mr. Brandriff sells his crops at Milville, two miles 
from his farm. His wheat crop has been tw-enty bushels 
pei acre, seventy-five of shelled corn, two hundred of 
round potatoes, one hundred of sw eet, five hundred and 
sixty of carrots, six hundred and twenty of turnips, w hile 
his cabbages pay one hundred dollars per acre, and of 
grass the yield is two to three tons. For manure, his 
main dependence is on the home product, sometimes 
using the fertilizers. The particulars of his expwience 
have been thus recited as affording unanswerable evi¬ 
dence of the character of nearly all the land in this here¬ 
tofore neglected region of New-Jersey. Much of it is 
superior to this particular farm. 
The visitor to Vineland cannot fail to notice the absence 
of fences, even in a ride of fifty miles. No farms have 
been fenced in, and not a dozen town lots. It had been 
calculated that five million dollars would be required to 
do the fencing of the whole tract. To save the settle¬ 
ment from this useless tax, Mr. Landis invoked the aid 
of the Legislature. A new township w as erected bearing 
his name, in which the running at large or cattle and 
swine was prohibited, thus each settler fences in his ow-n 
stock only, and is saved the great cost cf fepring out th» 
